“It was really hard to know that the kidney was right there in the room with me, yet I had to keep going through those dialysis sessions,” says Lauren. That meant that Lauren had to endure dialysis for a while longer as COVID-19 continued to wreak havoc across the city. Meanwhile, even though Jeanne was a match for Lauren and eager to donate her kidney, a transplant wasn’t possible because most surgeries were postponed in New York City due to the coronavirus outbreak. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening.’” “The dialysis nurse was ready to go right then and there. “I remember waking up from the procedure as they were rolling me into my room and the dialysis machine was already set up,” recalls Lauren. Only this time when Lauren was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, her condition was so severe that she immediately underwent an emergency procedure to implant a dialysis catheter. Jeanne insisted they go to the emergency room. She was also becoming increasingly lethargic and losing weight.īy the beginning of May, Lauren had grown so weak that she couldn’t leave the couch and barely touched a meal. Over the next four months, Lauren would regularly be in and out of the hospital to manage her blood pressure, which would often register as high as 180/100. Fernandez to adjust her medication to better manage her blood pressure.ĭespite Lauren’s best efforts, her kidneys continued to decline at an alarmingly rapid rate. Lauren adopted a restrictive low-protein diet and increased her water intake. She did, however, make some lifestyle changes because “I was trying to avoid it at all costs,” she says. “I didn’t think I needed another transplant.” I was going to work out,” says Lauren, who was a sophomore at Dominican College at the time. Still, when Lauren first heard her kidney diagnosis, she was optimistic that a transplant wouldn’t be in her future. Hilda Fernandez, a nephrologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine in pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “The combination of high blood pressure and the effect of 12 years of anti-rejection medications that unfortunately can damage the kidneys exacerbated her kidney failure,” says Dr. It also didn’t help that Lauren’s blood pressure had spiked. Zuckerman, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. “The main medication that we use to prevent rejection can unfortunately contribute to some kidney dysfunction,” says Dr. Warren Zuckerman, attending physician with the Program for Pediatric Cardiomyopathy, Heart Failure, and Transplantation at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Lauren’s heart transplant cardiologist. Kidney disease is not uncommon for heart transplant recipients like Lauren, according to Dr. Since 2012, when Lauren’s Law passed in New York state requiring that people answer the question “Do you want to be an organ donor?” on all Department of Motor Vehicles forms, Jeanne has been celebrating the impact Lauren’s voice on increasing the number of new organ donor registrations throughout the state. When Lauren became a young activist for organ donation, Jeanne drove her teenage daughter to Albany several times to share her story with New York State legislators. When Lauren was only 8 years old, she underwent a heart transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, where Jeanne kept vigil every day. Throughout Lauren’s life, her mother has always been her fiercest advocate and closest confidante. “That was devastating every single time.”Īdds Lauren: “It was the first time that we had ever been separated in my whole medical journey.” “I cried every time I had to drop her off and send her in alone,” says Jeanne, 54. Jeanne wanted to sit with Lauren and hold her hand during the rigorous treatment - as she had done when Lauren recovered from a heart transplant in 2008 - but because of COVID-19 restrictions, she wasn’t allowed to accompany her daughter inside. There were times I had to text my mom to come to the door and help me because I couldn’t walk out on my own,” says Lauren, then 20. Each time, Jeanne waited in her car outside as Lauren, with only a laptop and a knitted blanket to keep her company, spent three hours hooked up to a hemodialysis machine that did the work her failing kidneys couldn’t, cleaning the waste out of her blood. Three times a week, she drove her daughter Lauren to a dialysis center near their home in Rockland County. Last spring, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Jeanne Shields felt helpless.
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